AWS re:Invent 2018: Keynote Recap – Wednesday

Andy Jassy, AWS CEO, delivered Wednesday’s AWS re:Invent keynote with an emphasis on platform differentiation, relative to competitors. In summary, he noted that AWS financials continue to have unpresented growth with a $27B revenue run-rate; 46% YoY growth or $2.1B in absolute revenue, and a 52% market-share or 4x more than the next closest competitor. Staying with the differentiation theme, Jassy noted re:Invent 2018 is the largest attended technical conference with approximately 53,000 attendees and 2,100 technical sessions; the largest public cloud customer footprint, specifically, largest number of cloud-native startups and ISVs, and enterprise customers across all market segments; the largest partner ecosystem, where 2nd Watch was a noteworthy mention.

The keynote’s principle is what Jassy referred to as “The 5 Sentiments of What Builders Want.” Builders being the extensive AWS user community. The sentiments were cleverly revealed in musical covers by the AWS Band, giving Jassy the premise to disclose related new product announcements:

I Want It All – Queen

Jassy highlights that builders want uncompromised access to the AWS Cloud with appropriate tools to get them there fast and easy. New Data Transfer and Storage Services differentiators that facilitate AWS adoption. Notable product announcements included:

Amazon FSx for Windows Server – fully-managed, with full support for the SMB protocol and Windows NTFS, Active Directory (AD) integration, and Distributed File System (DFS); PCI, HIPAA, and ISO Compliance built-in

AWS File System for Lustre – fully managed file system that is optimized for compute-intensive workloads; PCI, HIPAA, and ISO Compliance built-in

I’ve Been Waiting – Matthew Sweet

Jassy focuses on new AWS Services that allow builders an easier path for the use and adoption of the AWS Cloud Platform, with a focus on automation and compliance. Notable product announcements included:

AWS Control Tower – automates the setup of a baseline environment, or landing zone, that is a secure, well-architected multi-account AWS environment

Freedom is the theme here. With new data patterns, AWS is giving builders the freedom to deprecate legacy database constraints and give them the access to choose “the right tool (DB) for the right job (workload).” Notable product announcements included:

AWS Managed Blockchain – fully managed service that allows you to set up and manage a scalable blockchain network

Satisfy Me – Elvis Presley

All about AWS delivering on customer feedback and satisfying the need to enhance the AI and ML services’ user experience with real-world application scenarios. With the launch of AWS Deep Racer (see below), AWS enables a fun, quick, and easy application of ML in the real world. Notable product announcements included:

VMware Cloud Foundation for EC2 – a collection of host-resident probes, drivers and agents that allow the vSphere system to optimize and manage workloads running on EC2 environments, either in Amazon’s EC2 public cloud or on premise on Amazon’s Outposts hybrid cloud solution

It’s apparent AWS is listening and intent on continued enablement of the builder, sharing the tools and technologies that’s made them successful – specifically, their innovation of AI and ML use-cases to enable builders to do what they do best without limits. We saw real-world application of AWS’ enablement from two brief customer presentations:

Formula1, Managing Director – Ross Brawne Obe: Using Amazon SageMaker with ML sensors and telemetry in race cars to enhance fan viewership engagement of Formula1 racing, as well HPC for new racecar designs.

Jassy closed with the well-versed FDR quote, “The Only Thing To Fear, Is Fear Itself!” With AWS as market-leader, continuous innovation of the AWS Platform, and a rich Partner Competency and MSP ecosystem, builders small and large are empowered in their adoption and journey to the cloud.